Cod Almighty | Article

by Andy Holt

1 December 2009

New Zealand, as you probably know, is a group of islands in the Pacific Ocean pretty much on the other side of the world to the UK. It is more than twice the size of England, while its population is just a twelfth of England's. And New Zealand is a rugby country. First and foremost, New Zealand loves its rugby. Despite a general feeling of rugby saturation with the number of games played, and disillusionment at game times arranged solely around TV audiences, New Zealand still loves its first love. Ask almost any Kiwi who was the captain of the 1987 rugby World Cup winning side and they'll be able to tell you it was David Kirk without even needing to think. They'll also tell you the other 14 players in the starting line-up.

David Kirk: All Black World Cup winner in 1987

They do play other sports though. Lots of other sports. And football is one of those sports. In 1982 the All Whites, as the New Zealand national team is known, even made the World Cup. This was the only time they've ever made the final stages of the tournament. The only time, that is, until 2010.

On 14 November, New Zealand, ranked 83rd in the world, played at home against Bahrain, ranked more than 20 places higher. It was the second leg of a play-off between the winner of the Oceania qualifying competition and the fifth-placed team in the Asian qualifiers. The first leg had ended 0-0, with a lacklustre New Zealand outplayed for large parts of the match.

In the second leg, in front of 35,100 fans - a record attendance for a football match in the country, eclipsing even the 31,900 who watched Beckham's LA Galaxy play in the same stadium in 2007 - New Zealand played at home against Bahrain, knowing that a win would take them to South Africa.

Their 1-0 victory handed New Zealand a place in the World Cup finals draw on 4 December. Rory Fallon's headed winning goal means that, for only the second time ever, the Kiwi football team will get to play in the most widely viewed sports tournament around the globe. It's a pretty big deal, you'd think. But does the nation agree? I am not sure what it would take for the New Zealand to be gripped by football.

In truth, Australia's move to the Asian confederation before this qualifying campaign made winning the Oceania group an awful lot easier than in previous years. But it still needed doing. And winning the play-off was no formality. Bahrain is an oil-rich country which supports its football team with an unlimited budget. Football in New Zealand is well down the list of sports in terms of popularity, funding and viewing figures, despite being the biggest game in terms of the number of competitors (including all age groups). To be honest, the group qualifying matches against Fiji, Vanuatu and New Caledonia don't exactly inspire a mass following.

The 1982 World Cup: New Zealand's Wynton Rufer skips past the lunge of Scotland's Graeme Souness

Most Kiwis know that the All Whites made the World Cup back in 1982 but would not be able to tell you more. 1987 is the significant year for them. I guess something comparable would be asking an English football fan to compare 1966 with 2003 - it's kind of an achievement; we don't know much detail but it makes us a little bit proud. But somehow a proportion of the nation embraced football at the time of the Bahrain game. A lot of time and money had been spent on marketing the game to the Kiwi population (much of both, remarkably, by the players themselves). And judging by how many people these past couple of weeks have commented on the atmosphere inside the ground as they watched on 14 November, it worked.

Since I moved here in 2007 I have often bemoaned to friends and colleagues the lack of atmosphere at rugby games. I have been to a few in the past two years, both in the national provincial competition (for this read Premiership) and in the Super 14 (for this read Champions League), and despite attendances upwards of 15,000 I have found that the crowds struggle to make more noise than you might hear at Blundell Park while Town's reserves are playing. I didn't expect to be among a crowd this big and yet still hear the players on the pitch. At Blundell Park 3,500 make more noise and create more atmosphere. At Blundell Park! I think this is why so many people were struck by it during the Bahrain game. The atmosphere was electric. The capacity crowd, apart from a small pocket of red Bahrainis, were swathed in white and never stopped cheering their heroes. It was unlike any sports crowd I have seen in this country.

The match itself was quite good. The first ten minutes or so had me worried. Bahrain seemed neat and tidy and quick to the ball. I feared the worst. But then New Zealand started coming into it more and more. They were more physical and dominated in the air. The front three in the 3-4-3 formation held up the ball well, pressured from the front and never stopped running. The centre two in midfield snapped and harried; the wide men provided width and mostly chased back while the back three dealt calmly with most of what came their way. The only criticism I had really was that the All Whites were not winning the second ball. They'd win the ball in the air or compete and win a challenge, but they were never first to the loose ball when it broke. As the half progressed the New Zealanders dominated more and more until, from a corner in the 45th minute, Plymouth striker Rory Fallon rose and headed what proved to be the winning goal. As he said after the game: "I don't miss those."

The second half began much like the first, with Bahrain the more energetic and determined of the two sides. Their efforts were rewarded in the 5First minute with a clear penalty. The opportunity was wasted, however, as Bahrain's Sayed Mohamed Adnan hit it at a nice height for the New Zealand keeper, Mark Paston, who had dived the right way. After that it was just a matter of time, counting down the clock. The front three continued to hold the ball up magnificently, giving a breather to their defence and midfield, and the time ebbed away until the ref blew the whistle and the stadium could erupt.

Bahrain's Sayed Mohamed Adnan has his penalty saved by Mark Paston

New Zealand had qualified for the World Cup finals. Even though they're only my adopted nation, I stood in my living room and cheered like a native.

The final games played this month mean that all 32 places in South Africa have now been filled. The FIFA rankings, for what they're worth, show that only two teams, South Africa and North Korea, are 'worse' than New Zealand. Achieving a point next summer would be a huge achievement for the All Whites, whose group F campaign kicks off on 16 June against Slovakia before meetings with Italy and Paraguay. There are some useful Kiwi players but the squad does not have strength in depth.

Looking at the make-up of the 18 in the squad from the Bahrain game, and including the five non-travelling reserves to make up a potential squad of 23 for South Africa, you get some sort of idea of the mixed standard we are talking about. Six of the 23 play their club football in the UK, two in MSL, and nine in Australia's A-league, while the remaining six play in the semi-professional domestic league over here. I think the A-league has made a difference to Kiwi footballers, allowing them to play professional football without moving to the other side of the world, but the standard's not high. Robbie Fowler is the top scorer for one of the teams, for goodness' sake. Admittedly the North Queensland Fury are bottom of the table but he's still second top scorer in the league this season.

The advent of the A-league has also led to more widely available football for the general population with a weekly live Sky coverage. The domestic league here is lucky to get a round-up show.

In terms of players the everyday British football fan might have heard of, 13 of the potential squad have English or Scottish league experience. But again the spread of the quality of the players is even evident here. Ryan Nelsen is the captain of the All Whites and the rock at the centre of the defence. This is a dual role he performs currently for Blackburn. Chris Killen, one of the front three, has played Champions League and UEFA Cup football for Celtic this season. But then, in contrast, we have Chris Wood, a 17-year-old striker currently at West Brom, Steven Old at Kilmarnock, Kris Bright at Shrewsbury and goalscoring hero Rory Fallon at Plymouth.

There are others with British league experience. Mark Paston played in goal for Walsall, St Johnstone and Bradford between 2003 and 2006; Simon Elliott played a few games in the Premiership for Fulham; Shane Smeltz, current top scorer in the A-league, played for Mansfield but also scored a few goals for AFC Wimbledon in his time. Leo Bertos was at Barnsley, Rochdale, Chester, York and Scarborough; Michael McGlinchey was at Celtic and Dunfermline; and Jeremy Christie played for Barnsley. Leo Bertos and Rory Fallon even played against Grimsby five times between them variously in 2003, 2004 and 2005, each of them appearing at BP once. Rory Fallon could have played in Cleethorpes a whole lot more too, as we tried to sign him from Barnsley back in November 2003. (In the end they sold him to Swindon in the end, because Swindon were prepared to pay a transfer fee. How very conventional.)

David Mulligan representing New Zealand during their 5-0 Confederations Cup defeat to Spain

The most familiar face to Mariners fans, however, should be David Mulligan. In case you can't quite place the name, think back to August 2007. Buckley mk III was still manager and had no objection to taking loanees from Scunthorpe, especially defenders with thunderbolt freekicks. Mulligan played seven games for us over the next five weeks, saw Buckley sacked, and was gone before Newell replaced Watkiss. It was brief and far from memorable. I suspect New Zealand's time at the World Cup next year will be even briefer. I just hope they manage to make their time memorable winning over fans around the country. If they show pride and determination, they will achieve that.

Before the match, asking a few colleagues about New Zealand's chance of making the World Cup next year I mostly received the response: "The World Cup is in 2011, you idiot!" This is where football fits in on the radar of most Kiwis. This week, though, people have actually started conversations with me about their chances in South Africa. Most persist with calling the game soccer, but you can't have everything, I guess. White may not be the new black just yet, but we're beginning to see shades of grey.